A parent cooperative for young children

March 2015

Welcome March! Spring is on its way! Let’s hope the weather starts to turn more spring-like as well. We’ve had plenty of snow and cold weather this winter. We’ve gotten out as much as possible and the children enjoy climbing the hill and sliding down, but it would be nice for the temperatures to warm up enough to make snowmen!

We will be starting to register children for next school year by mid-March. Registration forms will be in cubbies soon and we’d like them all back by spring break so we can open registration to new families after that. We have a very small group of children leaving for kindergarten this year, so our MWF spots are likely to be filled by current preschoolers.

This month we’ll begin working on assessments with the children. Your child might talk about ‘playing games’ with individual teachers. We expect assessments to continue through April and will be scheduling parent-teacher conferences in the end of April.

Jackie will continue toddler story time this month on the second and fourth Wednesdays (March 11th & 25th). This has been a great program enjoyed by toddlers and families.

If you haven’t had a chance to fill out our online parent survey, please do. We really value input from our families and many of our current programs have developed from survey suggestions. This is any easy way to let us know what you think. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XKHK6QS

Dates to remember:

March 10th: 6 pm. Parent meeting with pizza! We’ll explain how we do student assessments and conferences.

March 13th: Scholastic orders due

March 30-April 3rd: Spring break

Preschool Activities: We’ll start off the month with arctic animals, then move onto our bodies, weather and spring. We’ll be reading A Flower in the Snow by Tracey Corderoy, Penguins by Liz Pichon, The Colors of Us by Karen Katz, and We are all Alike, We are all Different. We will build penguins and packing peanut igloos, do self-portraits and trace our bodies. We will also be graphing the weather and compare our snowy days to rainy days as spring gets closer. On March 25rd and 26th we will have Special Person’s Night when your child gets to bring a special adult to show them around preschool.

Two’s Class: “In like a lion, out like a lamb!” We will enjoy starting the month with All You Need For A Snowman by Alice Schertle. And continue our snow theme with Hello Snow by Hope Vestergaard. Next we will read Good Luck Bear, by Greg Foley. To finish the month we will end with Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit by Il Sung Na.

We will explore with our senses, looking for signs of spring and winter leaving us. We will enjoy finger painting and water colors. Our play doh will be blue and yellow, exploring with mixing to make green. We are adding yoga and sign language to our daily activities.

Our year is moving with huge strides in all our children. We are seeing growth in language and social skills. All children are taking more of an interest in inviting others to join in play. Please continue to encourage independence in dressing. We encourage independence in the bathroom and in dressing for outside play. As a parent you can help by helping the children choose easy comfortable clothes to manipulate.